MAILBAG: Private dock fees should match mooring fees

Mr. Smoot’s letter (“Dock fees give no benefits to owners,” Aug. 23) about dock fees not benefiting private pier owners has several misconceptions about who pays for and receives harbor services.

Raising fees on moorings, commercial and private docks in Newport Harbor should be considered together. Most are on California state public tidelands administered by the city.

Moorings and most commercial docks do not belong to the city. The city does not provide maintenance for moorings or commercial docks except in the city-owned Balboa Yacht Basin and public piers.

Mooring owners pay a permit fee of $20 per feet, per year for the maximum-size boat that the mooring can accommodate. The use of space is permitted, and the equipment is owned by the permit owner just as the docks are. A mooring owner has a mandatory city required inspection and maintenance every two years that he pays for.

A recent city/county survey of some private docks noted that more than 60% of the boats tied up at those docks were not registered to the upland property owner. Recently, a private dock was advertised for rent at $20 per feet, per month. According to city code, it is illegal for private persons to rent public lands for their benefit.

Let’s look at a comparison of permit fees for moorings and private docks:

A mooring for a 40-foot boat uses an area over public tidelands of about 480 square feet. This lease cost is $800 per year, or $1.66 per square feet, per year. A typical dock around Balboa Island uses an area over public tidelands equal to approximately 790 square feet (pier 60-by-7, gangway 4-by-13 and dock 16-by-20). This permit cost is $93 per year, or $0.13 per square foot, per year. This does not include the area of any boats tied up at the dock.

The mooring owner pays almost 13 times as much for the same services on a space used basis, not including any boats that could be tied up.

Maybe if residential dock owners paid a fee commensurate to what the mooring owners do, for the area of public lands they use, we would not have boats on moorings and docks grounded at low tide.

I won’t go into the enhancement of property values for a house with a private dock relative to the cost of building and maintaining the dock.

DAN RUNNER

Balboa Island

Kids’ safety at school comes first

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an open letter to Jeffrey Hubbard, superintendent of Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Dear Dr. Hubbard:

Good on ya for pursuing emergency preparedness in NMUSD. To have a cohesive program involving the community and all employees is way overdue.

Just in the past few weeks, it’s been determined that we, in California, are way overdue for a large earthquake.

It is imperative every person working for the district knows exactly what to do for the 22,000 children for whom they are responsible.

Personally, I will breathe a sigh of relief when all the training is complete and the schools are truly ready to care for the students in the district, not to mention all the employees.

As you know, this was a huge issue for me in my campaign for the board. In fact, it was the first and most important issue.

If the district doesn’t ensure that the children are safe, then what else is there?

Thank you for taking this as seriously as it deserves to be taken.

SANDY ASPER

Newport Beach